Adaptive filter arrangements have been employed in attempting to effectively cancel acoustic echos. However, it is generally necessary to inhibit adaptation of the adaptive filter during intervals that so-called near-end speech is present. Otherwise, in the presence of near-end speech, the adaptive filter will diverge from an optimal echo path estimate. Indeed, known near-end speech detectors do not operate as well as might be desired in detecting the near-end speech in the presence of acoustic echos. As indicated above, undetected near-end speech will cause the echo path estimate being generated to diverge from the desired optimal value. Consequently, the acoustic echo will not be sufficiently canceled, which result is undesirable.